Ridgewing Dragons live just below the snow level on the upper slopes of mountains. They are a friendly, playful breed and enjoy dancing in wind currents near their homes or plummeting down into valleys from great heights. Their wings, by far their most striking feature, grow in fin-like ridges along their backs. While their bodies lack markings to blend better with their surroundings, a ridgewing’s wings have bright markings in the colors of the flowers that grow in their mountain habitat. Occasionally different-colored individuals can be found, but they are rare because their striking coloring offers little protection.

Dragons are highly-intelligent reptilian creatures that—from a human perspective, at least—appear to live forever. Many different varieties of dragon exist, each with their own unique qualities, habitats, and behavior. Adolescence in dragons is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling’s wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. In Galsreim, dragons and humans coexist peacefully.

Mariania has added to the growing population of Ridgewing commoners that live at her cave. She, like everyone else, has been trained to fight in the army under a special group assigned to her called the Mountain Ridge Archers. Together, Mariania and the rest of her squad have the job of positioning themselves high up on the mountains and using bows of saplings and arrows with stone tips to hit the army from the sides. The point of hiding up high on the mountain ridges is so that the enemy army doesn't see them and doesn't know where all these flaming arrows are coming from. Mariania is the best of her group and the master of stealth, but she isn't the leader. Honestly, she's fine with that and she's much more comfortable.